Hey, it's what I do! Welcome to my creative arts blog!

Welcome to my Maker's blog, where I feature my own unique creative projects. I'm seven years out from breast cancer and counting my blessings.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Blanket Chest project

I'll be posting the finish of the family tree project soon, I promise! But the finished painting(s) aren't done yet, so here's another project I finished last summer.

Here is a fun project I did for my livingroom. It started as a lemon yellow $2 toy chest from the flea market which we've used for blanket storage for almost twenty years. We have a dozen crocheted afghans compliments of my talented mom and when the weather's cool everyone is cuddled up in one, and the rest of the time the blankets are in this chest, which is also handy seating when everyone is at the house.

Originally I painted it black and left it that way for years. Then about ten years ago I gave it a faux marble finish with blue and silver veining. Hey, at the time I thought it looked good! One thing about me, I am not afraid to try painting something and then painting it again if I don't like it or I'm ready for a change. It costs me next to nothing and gives me something new and custom made for my house. I even faux marbled an entire office of steel furniture to look like green and black marble, and they came out GREAT! So yeah, I'm pretty much fearless about trying new things with paint.

So the next transition began with a couple of coats of leather brown spray paint. This is right after the first coat.

I found a design I knew I could adapt to the rectangular shape and painted it on top with acrylic paint. I antiqued it with raw umber glaze then sanded it to distress it nicely. This picture is right after it was sanded. Next I used pecan Polyshades, which is a stain and polyurethane finish all in one, to give it a nice vintage look. I like it. I like it alot.

In fact, I liked it so much that I did the same thing to my coffee table, which was a $7 auction buy from the eighties. It also got the faux blue marble treatment years ago but now it matches this blanket chest. They both look great with the chocolate brown slipcovers on the couch and gave my livingroom the punch of color I was looking for!

I'll be linking to the blog parties in my sidebar, come check them out and see all the fun, creative projects out there this week! See you there! And a late addition to the blog party fun, First Monday at Thrifty Decor Chic.

I love that you are not afraid to try anything when it comes to paint! I have found that when doing these kinds of paint projects, you just have to go for it and let the paint and tools just do the work for you. Some of my most popular faux finished items came from experimenting. Nicely done! Thanks for sharing your talents with us on Modern Craftswoman Monday! Rory

Thanks for commenting on my bowling ball art post. I love the balls you have.

I got the idea from an artist at an arts festival a few weeks ago. Along with his garden art made from old rusty tools (he made dragon flys and other animals that would hold gazing balls or flower pots - sounds ugly, but they were sort of cute in a rustic sort of way) he had a few gazing balls that had mosaics made out of broken china on them.

When I picked one up I commented how heavy they were and he told me his sister makes them out of bowling balls. Until then I didn't even know you could make something like that. It was a slow arts festival so he spent quite a bit of time discussing bowling balls with me :).

What a fabulous transformation! Your very talented with paint! Love the colors in the top. Great find - amazing job! Thanks so much for joining The Sunday Showcase. I greatly appreciate it! Hope you have a wonderul week! ~ Stephanie Lynn

my goodness, well, after all these transformations, i feel it has finally found its color and theme.this paint job is beautiful and it is a 10 out of 10 match with your interior design.

in fact, it's so good, please do enter it into our linky party, so that more people can find you and be inspired by your work.(btw this weekly linky is for DIY & craft tutorials only, so in future, be sure to add lots of details on how you made it okay?!!as that's what our site is all about: tutorials for everything creative under the sun...(particularly recycling and contemporary works)

here's where you link up your site:http://www.finecraftguild.com/diy-tutorial-linky-party/

About Me

I've always been creative and even my treatment and recovery from breast cancer has only slowed me down, not stopped me. At this time in my life I finally have my own craft studio where I can paint, sew, draw, crochet, design, quilt, you name it. I am creatively curious and I won't let my chemo stop me!